All The Arts Center Needs Is A Few Millionaire Backers

November 17, 1985|By Yolanda Maurer, Staff writer

If you ever wanted to know the difference between free enterprise and bureaucratic red tape, you could take as a good case in point the saga of the proposed Performing Arts Center vs. the Parker Playhouse.

Louis Parker

Twenty years ago, a theater-loving millionaire philanthropist by the name of Louis Parker decided that his adopted city needed a theater. In one short year, he conceived the notion, sought out the best possible architect he could find, got the city to donate a piece of land in Holiday Park and, presto! With no fuss, no blue-ribbon committee, no out-of-town consultants at exorbitant fees, within a few short months, that little gem of a theater, Parker Playhouse, was born.

Contrast that with all the headlines and all the trials and tribulations of our poor PAC, and you will see what I mean.

What this town needs at this point is a couple of philanthropist millionaires ala Louis Parker to come out of the manicured tennis courts of Bay Colony or Harbor Beach and put an end to our cultural misery with that same kind of entrepreneurial efficiency.

I know they are there and they could do it, too, just as soon as these people start thinking of Fort Lauderdale as ``home`` instead of Indianapolis or Chicago or New York.

Meanwhile, is it possible that the 20th anniversary of Parker Playhouse is practically upon us?

To some of us who were there, it seems only yesterday that on the night of Feb. 9, 1967, amid the biggest hoopla the city has seen so far, the Playhouse opened in a blaze of spotlights and television cameras. Neil Simon`s The Odd Couple was the first attraction, brought in by the man who was then -- and still is -- the Playhouse producer, Zev Bufman.

By a strange coincidence, the February 1986 offering also will be a Neil Simon play, his latest hit, Biloxi Blues.

And speaking of anniversaries, although the 20th is not technically until 1987, let`s hope that on that special occasion, the city fathers will plan to give full and proper recognition to the man who built us our first theater. In fact, there will be cause for double celebration.

Bufman has just signed a new 10-year contract with the city to produce at the Playhouse, and Dr. Parker will be celebrating an 80th birthday about the same time. Today, he shows in words and action the vigor and vitality that many a man half his age would envy.

This was obvious when I went to have a chat with him the other day. The Hungarian immigrant, who came to America with $15 in his pocket and became a multimillionaire in true Horatio Alger fashion, still eschews all the trappings of obvious wealth. He lives quietly and simply in a charming but unpretentious home in an equally charming, yet unpretentious neighborhood.

Rather than spend millions extravagantly on personal pleasures, he prefers to give to institutions like Nova University where he built more than 20 years ago the physical science building bearing his name. Then he turned around and built for another million dollars-plus, the beautiful Parker Playhouse. Now, bear in mind that 20 years ago, a ``million`` was like $10 million today.

I was remembering all that as the inventor/physicist took me to the Playhouse to see his latest improvement, one of those he introduces every year. This year, his artistic coup is the pair of ceilings flanking the theater lobbies on each side. He had always wanted these rotunda ceilings to be as beautiful as the famous plafonds of Versailles. So at the end of last season, he flew to Los Angeles to revisit the Biltmore Hotel, famous for its magnificent carved three-dimensional ceilings. He took hundreds of color photographs, figured out all the equations to make the pieces fit together and then handed them over to artist Don Renner of Plantation for interpretations.

The final result is nothing short of spectacular, as you`ll see for yourself on opening night, Dec. 17. Inside, our theater now has the look of an ornate 18th century European playhouse.

While I`m on the subject of show biz, Bufman hasn`t been very visible around town these past few months, and that`s because he spent the summer commuting between his New York office and his summer home in Aspen. In between, Zev and his wife Vilma took time to fly to Europe with Lin and Ted Arison on the Arison jet. Their first stop was Sweden where Arison, owner of Carnival Cruise Line and its five Fun Ships (remember the commercial?) wants to supervise the building of still another ship to add to his fleet.

The Horizon will play host next spring to a group of art lovers from Dade and Broward counties.

The cruise was a benefit for the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, which the Arisons founded and co-chaired. The Foundation aims to discover, encourage and nurture young talent at the local and national levels.

After looking over the new ship in Stockholm, the Bufmans and their hosts flew down to the French Riviera for a few days of fun in the sun in Monte Carlo and the super chic Hotel du Cap.